Saturday, June 23, 2007

NOT A DIME'S WORTH OF A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO MAJOR PARTIES, REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS, HAS LONG BEEN SAID SO IT SHOULD NOT HAVE SURPRISED ANYONE THAT THEIR LONG COURTSHIP FINALLY PRODUCED A CHILD:MIKE BLOOMBERG.

THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY RENOUNCED HIS FATHER AND REFUTED HIS NAMETHIS WEEK BY DECLARING HE WAS NO LONGER A REPUBLICAN. THOUGH HE'S YET TO TAKE THE DEATH POTION -- THAT COMES IN THE FINAL ACT, REMEMBER -- HE IS CLEARLY IN SEARCH OF HIS ROMEO, ROMEO.

AND, THOUGH HE MAY NOT GRASP IT, HIS ROMEO ALREADY EXISTS: THE MODERN DAY PRESS CORPS!

THE SANTA CRUZ SENTINAL PENS A LOVE LETTER INSISTING THAT, IN A NATION TILTING RIGHT FOR THE LAST 6 YEARS, WHAT THE PEOPLE (DISGUSTED WITH THE TILT) NEED IS A CENTER! MIKE BLOOMBERG WILL BE THE CENTER! AND THAT'S ONLY THE MOST RECENTLY LOVE LETTER COMING IN FROM THE PRESS CORPS.

A PRESS CORP, IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED, THAT HAS ALREADY INSISTED THE DEMOCRATS AND THE REPUBLICANS HAVE TOO MANY CANDIDATES BUT NOW WANTS TO INSIST THAT BLOOMBERG SHOULD ENTER THE RACE.

WE QUESTIONED ONE OF OUR PEERS WHO AGREED TO RESPOND PROVIDED WE DID NOT PRINT HIS NAME (THOUGH ROBERT PARRY RECENTLY DID). "THE THING IS, I'M TIRED, I'M OLD, I JUST WANT A CHECK. IT'S NOT LIKE I REALLY MEAN ANYTHING I SAY. HECK, I DON'T EVEN PUT MUCH THOUGHT INTO IT AT THIS POINT."

Starting with news of war resistance. Joshua Key's The Deserter's Tale continues to garner good reviews. Anita Joshua (India's The Hindu) reviews the book and concludes, "For over a year, he lived in the U.S. in constant fear of being caught before he fled with his family to Canada in search of asylum. But, he makes no attempt to exaggerate his travails to sell his story, and it is this honesty that reflects through all the detail." Key served in Iraq and, while back in the US, made the decision to self-check out instead of returning to an illegal war. He, his wife Brandi Key and their children then lived underground in the US before crossing the border into Canada where he is attempting to win refugee status. From page 171 of his book (written with Lawrence Hill):

One morning in Ramadi, while I was sitting on top of my armored personnel carrier outside a little house controlled by men from another platoon in the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, I saw soldiers open the door and push a naked prisoner outside. The prisoner looked like he was about forty years old. One soldier kicked him as he stumbled out the door and into the light, and another soldier kicked him as he passed through the gate. The detainee was sent to stand in the middle of the street, and for an instant I wondered why he had been brought out like that. And then, in full view of passerby, the naked man defecated in the street. I turned my head guiltily, but not before I had witnessed his humiliation. He stood up and was kicked on his way back inside the building. I never saw him again, and I don't know what happened to him.It would not be until much later, after I deserted the army, that I heard of Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, or about the abuses of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of Americans, or about human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Also noting Key is Kim Peterson (Dissident Voice) in his exploration of genocide which puts the illegal war into that context and quotes Key and Jimmy Massey. Massy is quoted stating, "As far as I'm concerned, the real war did not begin until they saw us murdering innocent civilians. I mean, they were witnessing their loved ones being murdered by US Marines. It's kind of hard to tell someone that they are being liberated when they just saw their child shot or lost thei husband or grandmother."

Speaking out to end the war is a duty Iraq Veterans Against the War takes very seriously. Monday IVAW's Adam Kokesh appeared on Mark Levine's Inside Scoop for the hour. We've noted the interview all week (and the link was left out of yesterday's snapshot when it first went up, my apologies) and we'll close out the week by noting it again:

Mark Levine: Tell me about combat stress?

Adam Kokesh: As you said, it's hard to get care. It's one of those things we're fighting for with Iraq Veterans Against the War, full funding of the Department of Veteran Affairs. But for me, when I came home, I didn't even allow myself to get into PTSD because I didn't want to think about my experiences in a way that would have that kind of emotional reaction.

Mark Levine: Denial. Just forget. Denial. [crosstalk]

Adam Kokesh: . . . and for me, when I came back, I had combat stress which is distinctly different because it's much more superficial and about habitual things. But the worst of it for me, was I had, I had a few anxiety attacks. You know, you just lose control of your brain for a few minutes and it's a little disturbing but it was something we were warned about. And for me, it was kind of a good thing. [cross talk] . . . No, no, no. You lose control of your brain and you just shut down. It's more of a --

Adam Kokesh: Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes I would cry. Sometimes I would shake. But it was internal. But it's mainly because of being overwhelmed by the environment and being in such a beautiful enivornment as my college campus was. To go from Falluja one week to campus the next week. . . . That caused the anxiety for me. The other things were I would wake up early well before my alarm and feel this strange sense of urgency, like I had to be somewhere, and not be able to go back to sleep.

Adam Kokesh's service in Iraq was not ingored by the US military. It was 'rewarded' with a witch hunt and Liam Madden and Cloy Richards are also targeted. The US military feels harrassment is a form of a 'thank you'. That's the reality of the US administration and the US military brass when it comes to veterans.

And if how little the lives and wounds (on all sides) from the illegal war matter isn't coming through, check out Robert Gates and Peter Pace. Josh White (Washington Post) reports Gates and Pace have launched a new wave of Operation Happy Talk -- the number of US service members who have died and are dying in Iraq is not an issue, that's the "wrong metric". That is the wrong thing to focus on, say Gates and Pace, as CBS and AP note that at least 16 US service members have been announced dead "over the past three days."Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) notes that the Operation Happy Talkers also said success "should be measured not by whether violence is reduced, but by whether Iraqis feel better about their nation's future." Gates and Pace, after splashing one another with waves of Operation Happy Talk, ran down to the beach to enter a wet t-shirt contest before expounding further on the notion of deluded levels of self-esteem being the true measure of success while living in a combat zone. No word on whether the rumors are true that both will dress up in silk nighties and have a pillow fight late tonight.

Realities on Iraq were addressed today on CounterSpin where co-host Janine Jackson interviewed Celine Nahory, co-author of [PDF format warning] "Independent Report on Iraq" which examines the causes of violence in Iraq. A sample of the discussion.

Janine Jackson: Well, I want to draw you out on another issue in the report -- there are many of them, of course -- but you talked about attacks on cities and I think many people, of course, as we've mentioned may believe that the 'coalition' is in the position of mainly defending or protecting but I think they still could tell you that the US-led 'coalition' did fiercely attack the city of Falluja. I think most people remember that but that would be a very incomplete picture, wouldn't it?

Celine Nahory: Well, at the very moment the US is actually imposing another siege on Falluja. There were two in 2004 and there is one going on right now -- for about a month now. But Falluja is absolutely not the only city on which there have been assaults. Part of the "anti-insurgency operation" that the US is pursuing in Iraq. A dozen other cities have suffered: Najaf, Tal Afar, Samarra, al Qaim, Haditha, Ramadi, Baquba, many others. And this is not something that happened here and there. It's really ongoing operations. And usually those operations follow the same pattern where the city is sealed off, a very harsh curfew is imposed, residents are encouraged to leave resulting in massive displacement of people. After awhile they assume that those who stay inside are only 'insurgents' and they cut water, food, electricity, medical supplies and carry massive bombardments on urban households and this destructs a very large part of the city. Reports say that more than 75% of the city of Falluja lies in ruins today. And many of those occasions, the US military has taken over medical facitilies such as hospitals. In those cities, very often hospitals are the tallest building in those cities. So the US takes them over and puts snipers on top and you have once again control over the city or neighborhoods.

Jackson observed that outside of AFP, she hasn't seen any press coverage of the report. The report is in PDF format and you can read it by sections:Executive Summary [Read] [French]Map of Major Coalition Attacks, Bases and Prisons [See map]Political Map of Iraq [See map]1. Introduction [Read]2. Destruction of Cultural Heritage [Read]3. Indiscriminate and Especially Injurious Weapons [Read]4. Unlawful Detention [Read]5. Abuse and Torture of Prisoners [Read]6. Attacks on Cities [Read]7. Killing Civilians, Murder and Atrocities [Read]8. Displacement and Mortality [Read]9. Corruption, Fraud and Gross Malfeasance [Read]10. Long-Term Bases and the New Embassy Compound [Read]11. Other Issues [Read]- Iraqi Public Opinion and the Occupation- Cost of the War and Occupation12. Conclusion and Recommendations [Read]

On the subject of Falluja, let's turn to a speech from last weekend's conference in Chicago, given by Dahlia Wasfi and focus on the Falluja section of her talk, "Falluja -- God help us for what we have done to the people of Falluja. On March 31, 2004, four American civilians lost their lives in Falluja. They were civilians with military backgrounds, in the same that a paramilitary death squad in El Salvador responsible for the brutal rape, torture and murder of four American nuns was comprised of civilians. Though they had GPS systems from Blackwater, those systems were not working that day, and they became disoriented. But they should have known long before, when they were boarding a plane for Baghdad, that they were going the wrong way. Perhaps they only signed a contract with Blackwater to achieve financial security for their loved ones. But there is a word in the English language to describe an individual who sells his body, his principles and his soul for monetary reward. That's a congressman. In the same way that Nazi soldiers fell victim to their system during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, these hired killers from Blackwater got justice served to them on a silver platter. Then, revenge was carried out on a people who can truly be identified as civilians. In April 2004, U.S. Marines closed the bridge to the city and a hospital road -- a war crime. The U.S. military and its vehicles stood at the hospital entrance -- a war crime. And snipers were positioned on rooftops, targeting ambulances and the clinic doors. Between 600 and 800 civilians were killed in that siege, but that wasn't enough. In November 2004, the second major siege of Falluja began. The Nazzal Emergency Hospital, protected by the Geneva Conventions, was leveled to the ground, and Falluja General Hospital, was seized by the U.S. military. Doctors described being tied and beaten, despite being unarmed and having only medical instruments. Burhan Fasa'a, a cameraman with the Lebanese broadcasting company, reported that there were American snipers on top of the hospital, shooting everyone in sight. In addition, the U.S. military blocked the Iraqi Red Crescent from entering the city for seven days. The result was a death toll of between 6,000 and 8,000 civilians. This means that the Iraqi death toll in November 2004 alone surpassed the invaders' death toll for all of Operation Enduring Freedom thus far."

Thursday, June 21, 2007

STRAINING FOR GOOD NEWS, ONE OF THE PRESS CORPS EMPHASIZED TO THESE REPORTERS THAT HILLARY CLINTON GOT "FEWER BOOS" THIS YEAR. SUCH PASSED FOR EXCITEMENT AND NEWS COMING OUT OF THE KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL LED JONESTOWN II.

WHEN THESE REPORTERS ASKED WHAT WAS THE REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEENTAKE BACK AMERICA AND JONESTOWN, OTHER THAN A DIFFERENT FLAVOR OF KOOL-AID, VANDEN HEUVEL EXCLAIMED, "I KNOW YOU! YOU ARE PART OF THAT MEAN CROWD THAT REPORTED ON THE NATION CRUISE!"

WITH THAT VANDEN HEUVEL FLED, A STRING OF MALE COFFEE FETCHERS RUSHING TO CATCH UP.

Starting with war resistance. In June 2006, Ehren Watada became the first US officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq. He explained his reasons for that publicly (illegal war, violation of treaties, setting those serving under him up for charges of war crimes); however, in Judge Toilet's court (John Head) all that got flushed for the February 2007 court-martial as Watada was prevented why explaining his reasons for refusing deployment. Despite this, Watada was coming out ahead and the prosecution's own witnesses were very effective . . . for the defense. Sensing this, Judge Toilet immediately called a mistrial on the third day, before Watada could take the stand and testify, and did so over the objection of the defense (and, initially, over the objection of the prosecution which took a bit to grasp the gift of 'do over' Judge Toilet was attempting to hand them). Due to the fact that there was no reason for a mistrial (Judge Toilet did a song and dance about a signing statement that he had reviewed prior, that he had instructed the jury on and now, on the third day, wanted to play dumb about) and that it was called over the objection of the defense, the double-jeopardy clause of the Constitution should prevent Watada from being retried. As Marjorie Cohn (president of the National Lawyers Guild) has pointed out, the judge in a trial -- any trial -- cannot just call a mistrial because s/he doesn't like the anticipated verdict. Next month, Ehren Watada's court-martial is scheduled for July 23rd; however, as his website points out, "legal proceedings are occuring on two fronts:

* a second trial in Ft Lewis, Washington, based on the original charges against Lt. Watada for failing to deploy and speaking agains the war, and

* a Defense motion before the Army Court of Criminal Appeals in Arlington, Virginia to dismiss all charges on the basis of Double Jeopardy.

In their "MISTRIAL SYNOPSIS," Judge Toilet's mistakes are noted and they include immediately scheduling a new trial (for March 19th) which was a case where the judge "exceed his authority, because a trial date cannot be set until the charges against Lt. Watada are again referred for court martial by the Ft. Lewis base commander and convening authority, Lt. General James Dubik."

Earlier this week Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Anna Quindlen (Newsweek) examined war resistance and noted Watada's statement, "My participation would make me party to war crimes." Watada made that statement at a June 7, 2006 Tacoma, Washington press conference. August 12, 2006, he would speak at the Veterans for Peace conference in Seattle, Washington where he noted (PDF format warning), "I have broken no law but the code of silence and unquestioning loyalty. If I am guilty of any crime, it is that I learned too much and cared too deeply for the meaningless loss of my fellow soldiers and my fellow human beings. If I am to be punished it should be for following the rule of law over the immoral orders of one man. If I am to be punished it should be for not acting sooner. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, 'History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period . . . was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people'."

Turning to Iraq Veterans Against the War's Liam Madden who, along with Cloy Richards andAdam Kokesh, has been targeted by the US military for actions and free speech in an attempt to silence voices speaking out against the illegal war. Ron Jacobs (here for OpEd News, here for CounterPunch) interviews Madden about the US military's efforts to strip him of his honorable discharge and instead discharge him from the IRR with an other-than-honorable discharge for the 'crimes' of "Wearing a partial USMC camoflage uniform at a political protest" and "Making Disloyal Statements at a speech in New York City. I said that 'The war in Iraq is, by Nuremberg standards, a war crime and a war of agression' and 'the president has betrayed U.S. service members by committimg them to a war crime." Madden tells Jacobs that, "Normally people aren't discharged from the IRR. It is simply a list of names the military can call upon in times of national crisis. When they don't want someone on the list they typically just cross them off. However it is not unusal that the government cracks down on those who are questioning the motives of their actions. For example, COINTELPRO, the imprisonmnet of Eugene Debs, and harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr." The IRR is a list of service members who have been discharged from the military. Should a president declare a national emergency, some names on the IRR list can be called up but only 30,000 -- in a declared national emergency -- can be called from the IRR list. If they are called up, UCMJ then applies to them (and nearly 15,000 have been called up since the start of the illegal war) (as explained by a friend in the US Marine Corps Judge Advocate Division). Clicking on Liam Madden's name takes you to a petition you can sign to show your support for Madden, democracy and free speech.

From Madden to Iraq Veterans Against the War's Adam Kokesh who appeared Monday on Mark Levine's Inside Scoop discussing multiple topics for the hour. We've noted the interview all week (and the link was left out of yesterday's snapshot when it first went up, my apologies) and we'll note it again today and here he is speaking of his return to the US after serving in Iraq:

Adam Kokesh: It was already like a bad dream. Like you wake up and it already feels like it happened to someone else. But I had to stay on active duty for two more weeks and go through all these debriefing classes and all this administrative b.s. And I was actually more stressed out from these classes teaching me about post-traumatic stress disorder because I was missing class [college], I wanted to be in school, I was already late.

Mark Levine: So you weren't having post-traumatic stress disorder?

Adam Kokesh: No, but what I experienced then was more what I learned in those classes, at least the one bit of useful information is that typical combat stress symptoms last twelve to sixteen weeks. And for me, it took me about three months to really feel comfortable being a student again.

Today, Nigel Yin (The Daily Egyptian) observes, "People these days throw the word 'hero' around without a second thought. Devin Hester opens the Super Bowl with a kickoff-return TD -- He's a hero! Bob Barker retires after 35 years of hosting the Price is Right -- What a hero! Kobayashi eats a whole lot of hot dogs -- Hero! Hero! Hero! But I'd like to pay respect to a hero whose contributions go unsung: Sgt. Adam Kokesh, a Marine who strives to protect veterans' right of dissent. . . . So while certain political figures may openly mock a mother of a deceased soldier, they now cower behind the uniform code of military justice to quell the seeds of dissent of a decorated Iraqi war veteran to avoid a PR backlash." And while Kokesh and others demonstrate heroism, Congress does nothing and Bully Boy thinks adding more fuel to the fire will put it out. Or possibly, he just thinks that when everything's burned away, no objections will exist?

But reality is that today the US military announced: "Four Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers were killed when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in a western Baghdad neighborhood June 20. One other Soldier was wounded in the attack." And they announced: "Five Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldiers, three Iraqi civilians and one Iraqi interpreter were killed when a roadside bomb detonated near a Coalition vehicle during combat operations in a northeastern section of Baghdad June 21." And they announced: "Two Marines assigned to Multi National Force-West were killed June 20 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province." Now those 11 deaths may not be as fun to write about as American Idol or your daughter's sweet sixteen (you don't think it's your sweet sixteen, do you?) but it happened and it continues to happen. 3545 is the current total for the number of US service members killed in Iraq with 68 being this month's total thus far.

Marie Cocco (Truthdig) attempts to address other realities. She notes that Iraq can now be considered a "failed state" and that "[t]o bring Iraq to the brink, we have invested half a trillion dollars in military alone and staffed the largest U.S. embassy anywhere and now have 150,000 U.S. troops on the ground." She notes that the food crisis results in 60% of children and pregnant women in the capital being anemic, thyphoid fever being common in Basra, etc. She also correctly notes: "The Bush White House and, for their part, the Republican presidential candidates, continue to push a military solution that alread has been shown to be no solution. The Democrats, including the party's presidential candidates, want to withdraw troops but promote the notion that the factionalized and corrupt Iraqi government can somehow pick up the slack." The last statment doesn't apply to Democratic candidates for the 2008 presidential nomination Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel and Bill Richardson. (It can be argued that it doesn't apply to John Edwards as well.) But Cocco, possibly exhausted by the killings, the never ending illegal war, notes the James Baker Circle Jerk's proposal of partioning Iraq ("along sectarian lines" -- so the 8 Christian college students kidnapped yesterday -- if they turn up alive -- would live where?) and wonders if that would work. And then Cocco quickly winds down. The US (or the US and England) dividing up Iraq is not an "answer" and it's not "self-determination." The US government has provided non-stop promises of democracy never delivered (like the Iraq constitution which has never been addressed or modified even though the push through on that promised it would be) and US solutions are not the answer to Iraq. Iraq is a nation-state filled with adults. It is not a nation of children that needs another government to impose its will. Iraq needs to be allowed to decide what's best for Iraq and that will not happen while a US installed puppet government is in place and it will not happen by the US decreeing that Iraq is now three different "partitions." The US has no business being in Iraq (never did) and it certainly has no right to determine what another country (an inhabited country, please remember) will be like. That's not democracy, that's not self-rule, that's not self-determination. US Senator and 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden also favors partitioning Iraq.)

This week the Institute for Public Accuracy released their "Independent Report on Iraq" co-authored by James Paul and Celine Nahory with Paul noting of the report: "While most people focus on the sectarian bloodshed, our report highlights the enormous violence of the occupation forces. There is an increasing air war that results in heavy casualties as well as the daily killing of civilians at checkpoints, during house searches, by snipers, and by ground bombardment. Nearly a million Iraqis have died due to the effects of the occupation and 4 million have fled their homes. . . . Under the control or influence of U.S. authorities, public funds in Iraq have been drained by massive corruption and stolen oil, leaving the country unable to provide basic services and incapable of rebuilding. The U.S. government has repeatedly violated many international laws, but top officials reject any accountability."

BUT NOW HAS LEFT THE GIULIANI CAMPAIGN. APPARENTLY HE WANTS TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH HIS FAMILY. NOW, WERE HE AFRICAN-AMERICAN, THAT WOULD BE IN THE "BIG HOUSE." BUT CHANCES ARE COCAINE CHARGES FOR A WHITE MILLIONAIRE WON'T RESORT IN THE SAME EXCESSIVE PUNISHMENT THAT WOULD BE HANDED OUT TO AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN.

Starting with Iraq Veterans Against the War's Adam Kokesh who was selected for the Wings of Justice Award today -- BuzzFlash's weekly honor which concludes: "The Marine Corps treated Kokesh unfairly for expressing his viewpoints, a freedom he put his life on the line for in Fallujah. That is what Bush says we are fighting for there, doesn't he? Adam Kokesh, to us, you served honoroably and bravely. You truly merit this week's BuzzFlash Wings of Justice award."

Yesterday, June 19, 26 year old SPC Eli Israel put himself at great personal risk by making the courageous decision to refuse futher participation in the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Eli told his commanding officer and sergeants that he will no longer be a combatant in this illegal, unjustified war. Eli believes that the U.S. government used the attacks of September 11, 2001 as a pretense to invade Iraq and that "we are now violating the people of this country (Iraq) in ways that we would never accept on our own soil." Eli is stationed at Camp Victory in Baghdad with JBV Bravo Company, 1-149 Infantry of the Kentucky Army National Guard. This soldier's decision to refuse orders put him at great risk, especially because he's in Iraq, isolated from legal assistance and other support. The following is a message that Eli sent yesterday to a friend back home:"I have told them that I will no longer play a 'combat role' in this confllict or 'protect corporate representatives,' and they have taken this as 'violating a direct order.' I may bein jail or worse in the next 24 hours. Please rally whoever you can, call whoever you can, bring as much attention to this as you can. I have no doubt that the military will bury me and hide the whole situation if they can. I'm in big trouble. I'm in the middle of Iraq, surrounded by people who are not on my side. Please help me. Please contact whoever you can, and tell them who I am, so I don't 'disappear'."Eli is taking an incredible risk by refusing orders in Iraq and will most likely be court martialed. Please help him by contacting his Senator and requesting that he take any steps necessary to support and protect this soldier and ensure that the Army respects his rights and does not illegally retaliate against him.Senator Mitch McConnell:Washington Office361-A Russell Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510Phone: (202) 224-2541Fax: (202) 224-2499

And resistance is going on everywhere -- around the world. Turning to England, where the mother of a British soldier serving in Iraq has issued a public message to Gordon Brown (Tony Blair is expected to step down next Wednesday -- June 27th -- and Gordon Brown would then become prime minister of the UK). Lily Walker states (via Great Britain's Socialist Worker), "My message to Gordon Brown is that we must get the troops home now. My son is a serving soldier just back from Iraq. I am not a pacisfist, but I am against what is happening in Iraq -- the illegality and the lies. None of the troops enlisted to fight for a lie. I won't sit back and be quiet about what is happening in Iraq. I live in Tameside, just outside Manchester, and I have been calling on people to come to the demonstration on Sunday 24 June. Together we can make a difference. Tony Blair has let people down. It remains to be seen what Gordon Brown will do." Lily Walker is a member of Military Families Against the War and the demonstration this coming Sunday is "Gordon Brown's coronation as Tony Blair's successor" in Manchester (starting at noon at St. Peters Square, more information by clicking here).

JIMMY PRESSON: We very rarely to never talk about the war through the curriculum. In classes in which we discuss current events, we are required to not bring in current events that relate to the war.

AMY GOODMAN: Wait, what do you mean? What about social studies or history?

JIMMY PRESSON: In history classes, the current events that we bring in are -- we've been instructed to have the articles be unrelated to the war.

AMY GOODMAN: You're not allowed to talk about war in your history class?

JIMMY PRESSON: We're not allowed to talk about the war.

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

JIMMY PRESSON: Because it's too controversial, I guess. Because they don't want kids arguing in class.

AMY GOODMAN: Is there any class that you can talk about it?

JIMMY PRESSON: We can talk about it a little bit in Middle Eastern studies, a little bit, but it's not even that much in that class.

BONNIE DICKINSON: That class is not offered.

JIMMY PRESSON: Every year. It's only offered every other year.

AMY GOODMAN: So this past year, it wasn't offered?

JIMMY PRESSON: It was not offered this past year.

AMY GOODMAN: So the only class to discuss this was in drama?

JIMMY PRESSON: Yeah.

A war is ongoing, it passed the four year mark in March and a high school thinks it's a topic to be banned? Let's all pretend it's not going on and it won't be? Is that the 'plan'? It's certainly not education. Presson portrays Charlie Anderson in the play and Anderson gave the play and Presson high marks. Some attempted to silence the students -- they did not succeed.

IN WHAT IS SEEN AS A POTENTIAL BID TO COURT THE "BOTH PARTIES ARE THE SAME SO LET'S PUT THEM ON ONE TICKET!" UNITY (SMALL) CROWD, MIKE BLOOMBERG STEPPED OUT OF HIS CLOSET TO ANNOUNCE THAT HE WAS NOT A REPUBLICAN.

REACTION ON THE STREETS OF NYC HAS BEEN LESS EXTREME THAN IN THE PRESS. SAID A FALAFEL DEALER, "HE WAS A REPUBLICAN? WELL AT LEAST RUDY'S STILL A DEMOCRAT." A HOT DOG VENOR TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "I SUSPECTED HE WAS HIDING SOMETHING. YOU CAN ALWAYS JUST TELL. I FIGURED HE WAS EITHER A CROSSING DRESSING SERIAL KILLER OR A METH ADDICT SO THIS NEWS DOESN'T EVEN SHOCK ME THOUGH I AM GLAD TO KNOW HE HAS NO ADDICTION." A SHOPPER TAKING A REST IN TIMES SQAURE SAID, "MIKE BLOOMFIELD? I SAW HIM AT MONTEREY. I DID NOT KNOW HE WAS STILL RECORDING BUT IF HE WANTS TO BE AN INDEPENDENT, I CAN LIVE WITH THAT." AND ROY TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "METS RULE! METS RULE! METS RULE!"

TO HONOR THE 'HIGH' 'STANDARDS' OF THE PRESS CORPS WE BELONG TO, WE SHOULD NOTE THAT THE POLLING DEMONSTRATES 100% OF NEW YORKERS HAVE NO OBJECTION. OUR SAMPLE SIZE WAS FOUR AND WE NOW FEEL WE'RE READY TO GO TO WORK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES POLLING TEAM.

I realized though that there was a futility in it. That what we were doing on our small scale may be good for the Iraqis we were dealing with, you know, may be good that there's another clinic there, another school, these are great things that Iraq needs. But in the scale of things, in the greater scale of things we're imposing martial law on a country and for every insurgent we kill today we piss of so many people in the process the next day we have two to kill. And what the country really needs is rule of law. And in order to have military civil affairs. . . in Iraq, we're imposing military law on the country and you can't create a standard rule of law that we take for granted in America with law enforcement, courts and precedent and a stable legal system with a foreign military there imposing martial law. . . .There was a lot of resentment about that [US remaining]. It was like "Okay you got rid of Saddam, thanks, we'll take it from here." And everything that we tried to step in and do for them was really resented.

It's an hour long interview, available for online streaming. On the topic of aspirations and realities, Christina Hamlett (American Chronicle) reviewsPlays and Playwrights 2007 and notes that "this anthonlogy is Brendon Bates' Corps Value in which a father's sense of duty to country is challenged when the Marine son he is so proud of for kicking ass in Iraq suddenly announces that he feels the war is unjust and is, therefore, turning AWOL. . . . Plays and Playwrights 2007 is a trade paperback of 492 pages". Michael Criscuolo (NYTE) discusses the play with Brendon Bates who notes that the question he's raising "is our objective(s) in Iraq worth all this suffering?"

In Baghdad today, a truck bombing has resulted in mass deaths. It is already the deadliest bombing since April 18th when 191 Iraqis were killed. Richard Beeston (Times of London) sets the scene: "One of Baghdad's busiest commercial districts shuddered with the impact of the afternoon explosion, which went off in a parking lot near the Kholani mosque, one of Baghdad's best known landmarks. A huge pall of black smoke obscured the area. When it cleared the distinctive turquoise dome of the shrine appeared undamaged bu the explosion wreaked havoc in the crowded streets below." BBC observes that the usual Baghdad checkpoints along with mid-day traffic led to traffic jams in the time before the bomb exploded. Julian E. Barnes and Raheem Salman (Los Angeles Times) note that a house and some shops were destroyed and at least twenty cars were "ablaze" from the bombing. CBS and AP report that shooting followed the explosion and quote eye witnesses Karim Abdullah stating, "I stopped in shock as I saw the smoke and people on the ground. I saw two or three men in flames as they were getting out of their car." AFP reports that, in the aftermath of the bombing, there was a rush to pull people out of burning cars and from underneath the rubble and "[g]roups of women wailed, while others chanted that the explosion was the work of those who blew up a Shiite shrine in the northern city of Samarra last Wednesday." Al Jazeera notes the death toll to be 78 with 130 injured. Beeston (Times of London) puts the injured at 200 and observes, "The move was a particular blow to the US military, which had earlier launched a massive military offensive outside Baghdad aimed at disrupting al-Qaeda from carrying out precisely the sort of attack that took place in the capital." Reuters puts the wounded at 224 (78 for the dead).

CNN provides the following back story: "The mosque damaged in Tuesday's attack houses the tomb of Mohammed al-Khalani, who was the second deputy and messenger of the Mehdi, the 12th imam from the early days of Islam who is revered by Shiites. The Mehdi is said to have disappeared during the funeral of his father in the 9th century. Sunnis believe Allah withdrew the Mehdi from the eyes of the people and they are waiting for him to reappear as their leader." And Simon Tisdall (Guardian of London) notes, "The mosque's imam, Sheikh Saleh al-Haidari, said civilian worshippers had been targeted in the blast as they left afternoon prayers."

"IT'S LIKE A SNOW DAY!" SQUEALED CARL M. CANNON AS HE SPUN MADLY IN CIRCLES.

MEANWHILE JAMES ROSEN GOT INTO A NASTY BIT OF NAME CALLING WITH NEDRA PICKLER WHEN SHE REFUSED TO "LOAN" HIM A CIG.

"IT'S NOT A LOAN! IT'S PANHANDLING, YOU BUM!" SHE SHOUTED LEADING ROSEN TO EXCLAIM SHE WAS "STINGY" AND BEGIN SCREAMING OBSCENITIES IN A HIGH PITCHED VOICE UNTIL PICKLER USED HER LIT CIGARETTE TO SHUT HIM UP.

MEANWHILE, OTHERS LOOKED ON AS MARTHA RADDATZ CONTINUED HER LONG TERM CRUSH ON OLIVER KNOX BY LAUGHING UPROAROUSLY AT EVERYTHING HE SAID. SINCE HE WAS MAINLY ASKING, "DO YOU THINK THIS IS A DRILL OR IS THERE REALLY A BOMB?", RADDATZ HIGH PITCHED GIGGLES LEFT HIM CONFUSED AND EVERYONE ELSE ROLLING THEIR EYES.

MOST ATTENTION FOCUSED ON MELISSA CHARBONNEAU WHO STAYED TO HERSELF WHILE PRAYING LOUDLY, "DEAR GOD, REMEMBER I'M THE ONE YOU LIKE. SMITE EVERYONE HERE, THEY ALL DESERVE IT, BUT REMEMBER YOU LOVE ME."

AND MOST TRIED TO AVOID THE SOBBING BYRON YORK WHO BLUBBERED TO HIMSELF THAT HE WAS TOO PRETTY TO DIE IN AN EXPLOSION. "MY FACE, MY BEAUTIFUL FACE," HE SOBBED.

THE LAST HONEST JOURNALIST IN D.C., HELEN THOMAS, SURVEYED HER COLLEAGUES AND CAUTIONED US THERE WAS "NO STORY HERE" BUT DEB RIECHMAN RUSHED OVER INSISTING, "WE ARE THE STORY! WE ARE ALWAYS THE STORY! IN THE MOVIE, I WANT SHELLY LONG TO PLAY ME!"

Starting with war resistance, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Anna Quindlen (Newsweek) examines the resistance in the ranks noting Iraq war resister Ehren Watada, Iraq Veterans Against the War, noting that "[w]hat was once underground is now-in-your-face," and Scott Pelley's 60 Minutes piece (May 27, 2007) on a soldier whose experiences in Iraq changed his opinion of it and destroyed any notions that the illegal was about 'freedom.' Quindlen concludes, "So, of course, have many Americans. The difference is that they don't have to pick up a gun and climb into an armored vehicle on a mission they've concluded is senseless, endless and just plain wrong. There are those who argue that such a conclusion is above the pay grade of anyone but the commander in chief, and that discipline overrides dissent. But it's the guys in the field who are best able to judge whether the mission is right and just and is working on the ground. They are the ultimate embeds. As one man said on a posting to the IVAW Web site, 'when the people who fought the war are speaking out against it . . . maybe you should listen'."

Iraq Veterans Against the War's Adam Kokesh appeared today on Mark Levine's Inside Scoop where he and the host discussed the street theater and the actions behind Operation First Casualty, the attempts by the military to silence Kokesh (resulting in the so-called hearing), his service in Iraq and the process of his speaking out publicly against the illegal war. On what needs to be done, Kokesh stated, "I think if we immediately withdraw all our occupying forces we can continue to honor our obligations to the people by paying reparations and hope that someday they'll find their own way to a proper democracy."

Today, Iraq Veterans Against the War took Operation First Casualty to Chicago: "In an effort to illuminate the true reality of the conflict in Iraq, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War will engage in a series of street theater actions around the Chicago area on Monday, June 18. The street theatre action is entitled, 'Operation First Casualty' (OFC) because the first casualty of war is truth. Members will carry out reenactments which highlight various aspects of life in combat in Iraq. The event will be treated like a military operation with participants in full military uniform, however, there will be no weapons used at any time. This will be IVAW's fourth OFC."

In Iraq, a war rages . . . for control of the message. War Pornographer Michael Gordonweighed in Sunday (New York Times) with some heavy breathing about a 'major offensive.' As Gordo threw his pompoms in the air (possibly his legs as well), truths began emerging. Karen DeYoung (Washington Post) reports David Petraus ("top commander in Iraq") spoke Sunday of how "Conditions in Iraq will not improve sufficiently by September to justify a drawdown of U.S. military forces" and quotes him answering a question as to whether or not the escalation would be over by then with "I do not, no. I think that we have a lot of heavy lifting to do." This as Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) notes that only 40% of Baghdad -- home of the year long 'crackdown' -- is "under the control of security forces" according to Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno. The escalation took place over the objections of American people, if not over the objections of Congress ('symbolic' measures are only 'symbolic' objections). The American people have been told the escalation would be short term, was temporary, but the reality appears to be -- like everything with this illegal war -- Bully Boy lied to get what he wanted and a do-nothing Congress (regardless of which party's been in charge since 2003) didn't prevent him and won't punish him. But Editor & Publisher notes that the escalation, according to a report released by the Iraqi Red Crescent, has 'accomplished' displacing even more Iraqis, creating more Iraqi refugees.

The big talking point of the 'New Iraq' is that new 'plans' and 'strategies' are emerging when the reality is that a fire is blazing and someone says, "No, not two gallons, let's try four gallons of gasoline this time." But a 'development' that was supposed to prove promising was the arming on non-Shi'ites. As with every other Bully Boy non-plan, didn't work out quite the way they sold it. Nancy A. Youssef and Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) report that "some U.S. military officials in Washington and foreign policy experts" say arming the Sunni population "undercuts the Iraqi government and years of U.S. policy, and is a tacit acknowledgement that the country's violence is really a civil war" and military "officers also say it abandons the long-stated U.S. goal of disarming militias and reinforces the idea that U.S.-trained Iraqi forces cannot control their country." Joshua Partlow (Washington Post) quotes an unnamed "senior Iraqi government" stating, "Every three months they have a new strategy. This is not only a distracting way to conduct policy, it is creating insecurity for all. I don't think these strategies have been thought through deeply. It is all about convenience." Meanwhile Patrick Wintour (Guardian of London) reports that Jay Garner, kicked out by the US administration for wanting to hold elections in Iraq, states that "the country is on the brink of a genocidal civil war and its government will fall apart unless the US changes course" -- Garner is advocating the same 'solution' as US Senator and 2008 presidential hopeful Joe Biden: divide Iraq into three parts. Tom Baldwin (Times of London) reports that US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker speaks of a "clear absence of progress" -- but he's blaming the victims (Iraqis) and not taking accountability so we'll move right along.

Which brings us back to the non-plan built around the so-called success of the al-Anbar 'model' which, the lie tells you, was a huge success when the US military decided to arm militias in al-Anbar province. Ali al-Fadhily (IPS) reports that the so-called success has been a failure that has "won it more enemies instead," that there were "short-term victories" but, long-term results were to turn "people more and more strongly against the occupation," that the US backing (cash payouts -- that's me, not al-Fadhily) criminals and 'leaders' installed by the British during the 1920 occupation who long ago left Iraq but, historian Mohammad al-Dulaimy states, "They then found a chance to return under the American flag."